NASA Image of the Day | Orion Spacecraft Parachutes Tested at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground Image credit: Image Credit: NASA Last Updated: March 9, 2017

NASA Images of the Day | Orion Spacecraft Parachutes Tested at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground

ARIZONA | Engineers successfully tested the parachutes for NASA’s Orion spacecraft at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona Wednesday, March 8, 2017. This was the second test in a series of eight that will certify Orion’s parachutes for human spaceflight.

The test, which dropped an Orion engineering model from a C-17 aircraft at 25,000 feet, simulated the descent astronauts might experience if they have to abort a mission after liftoff.

Orion, which will launch atop NASA’s Space Launch System rocket from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is built to take astronauts farther into the solar system than ever before. The spacecraft will carry crew to space, provide emergency abort capabilities, sustain the crew during their mission and provide safe re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere.

A family of Osprey are seen outside the NASA Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on Thursday, May 13, 2010. The countdown is on for Friday’s scheduled launch of space shuttle Atlantis on its STS-132 mission. At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians at Launch Pad 39A continue preparations for the liftoff at 2:20 p.m. EDT. The rotating service structure will be moved away from the spacecraft at 5:30 p.m. today. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)